Cat King
猫王 (Mao Wang), known in English as Cat King, was a robot from California in the United States of America which competed in Season 1.5, the debut of This is Fighting Robots. Cat King was deemed immobile at the end of its Group Battle, but became the final selection for Zheng Shuang's team, ultimately losing a wheel during its rumble in the main competition after an attack from 008. Under Shaung's controls, Cat King would also fight a head-to-head against Weber and Zhang Yishan, but lost the Judges' decision despite performing strongly during the battle. Cat King redeemed this by throwing Great White out of the arena using its vertical spinner. Design Cat King is a modular robot that runs on a four-wheel drive train. It has two different center weapon modules. The first is equipped with a solid front wedge, decorated with whiskers and a feline face, and the center of the wedge is a 40lb dual tooth spinning disc, operating vertically to throw robots over. Two skate wheels are placed above the spinner, so that Cat King can run inverted. This allows the robot to drive into an arena Grinder using its active weapon to self-right. Cat King's alternative module uses two protruding wedges at either side, with a black lifter in the center, which also allows Cat King to self-right. A mouse-themed minibot accompanied Cat King during practice for its Head-to-Head battle against Weber, serving as a test opponent for Zheng Shaung to dodge and attack. Robot History This is Fighting Robots (Season 1.5) Cat King was not chosen by any of the celebrities during their initial selection process, so Cat King was required to take part in a four-way rumble against Greedy Snake, Spike Head and Whirlwind. Greedy Snake rammed into Cat King, immediately putting it on the back foot. Cat King's spinning blade made contact with Greedy Snake's weapon, causing the Chinese robot to release its grip. At this stage, Spike Head immobilized itself by ramming into Greedy Snake, overturning itself. Cat King withstood a blow from Whirlwind, sparks being cast from its armor. Having already qualified, Greedy Snake continued its assault and drove straight under Cat King to drive it backwards, and Whirlwind also struck Cat King on its escape. Greedy Snake pushed Cat King back into the wall, and Cat King sustained another direct blow from Whirlwind, sending it straight back into Greedy Snake's grip. While pushing it back, Greedy Snake clamped down on Cat King and lifted it up. Greedy Snake released its grip, dropping Cat King, which suffered from another Whirlwind attack. This time, Cat King retaliated, and used its vertical spinner to trade with Whirlwind's own spinner, throwing the Chinese robot onto its back. Whirlwind had no method of self-righting, and was eliminated. With only Cat King and Greedy Snake remaining, Cat King struck the weaponry of Greedy Snake, but the Chinese entry pushed the American robot into the Grinder. Cat King had seemingly lost the use of its weapon at this stage. Pinned in the corner of the arena, Greedy Snake grabbed Cat King once again, and lifted it into the air. At this point of Episode 1, the battle was cut early, creating a cliffhanger which was resolved in the second episode. Cat King was subsequently thrown onto its back by Greedy Snake, and was immediately declared to have lost the battle despite still being able to drive upside down. Due to Cat King being ruled immobile, it could not be selected by a celebrity during battle. Although Cat King was initially eliminated from the competition, the celebrities were required to choose from a final selection of robots which were not chosen at the end of their group battle, and Zheng Shuang made Cat King her final addition to her team of ten. Shaung then drafted in Cat King to battle the Scottish 008, the Chinese Red River Hong and the Russian Weber. Cat King's wedge was immediately exploited by Weber, and the flipper threw Cat King over, causing it to rebound into a Grinder and land inverted. Cat King voluntarily drove back into the Grinder in an effort to self-right, but completed a full somersault and landed inverted again, also losing the use of its weapon. Cat King drove into the Grinder a few more times and was eventually able to use the Grinder to self-right. This allowed Cat King to overturn Weber with a slam. While engaging Red River Hong, 008 hit Cat King from behind and caused Cat King to lost a drive belt as well as its left wheel. This rendered Cat King immobile on one side, albeit not immobile officially. Unable to leave its circumference, Cat King was briefly suspended by a ramrod, and was later slammed from behind by Red River Hong. Despite making no impact on the battle while inverted again, Cat King survived until a Judges' decision, but this was awarded to Weber. Cat King remained on Zheng Shaung’s team for later rounds, eventually being chosen to fight Weber again for a head-to-head battle. This time, Shaung was given full control of the robot, while Team Food Fight decided to use Cat King’s lifter module for the first time. During practice, a mouse-themed minibot accompanied Cat King as a test opponent, which Shaung attempted to avoid as she accustomed herself with Cat King’s controls. Eventually, she succeeded in getting Cat King to ram and flip the minibot over; with the minibot stranded on its back, Cat King threw it back upright using its lifter. In the opening moments of the battle, Cat King drove steadily towards Weber, dodging the Russian robot as it charged into the wall spikes. However, it reversed onto the lip of Weber’s flipper, avoiding a flip as Weber threw itself over instead. Cat King drove under Weber as it tried to self-right, and spent some time bumping into its opponent before driving into its side and lifting it. After momentarily driving around the arena, Cat King drove into the back of Weber, again lifting it. It dodged another charge from Weber, before the two competitors rammed head-on onto each other. Cat King remained tentative as Weber circled round it and got itself impaled on the wall spikes, and retreated towards the other side of the arena as Weber freed itself. Immediately, Cat King rammed Weber into the wall spikes, using its lifter to clamp it in place. It reversed just as Weber threw itself free from the spikes, and was briefly thrown off-balance as the Russian machine rammed and tried to flip it again. Cat King missed another lift, and attempted to retreat before being cornered against the wall spikes and flipped over by Weber in the closing seconds. After time ran out, Cat King quickly self-righted and retreated, with both robots surviving to a Judges’ decision. Despite a strong performance, the decision ultimately went against Cat King and Zheng Shaung. In the head-to-head round, Cat King was challenged by Wu Chun's Great White and Zhang Yishan's Vulcan, and Zheng Shuang chose for Cat King to battle Great White. Results |} Wins/Losses *Wins: 1 *Losses: 2 NOTE: Cat King's preliminary rumble is not considered to be a win or a loss. Series Record Outside King of Bots Cat King was designed by Team Food Fight, and the entire build process was live streamed on Twitch. This is one of the first and only heavyweights to have been designed in a public setting. Outside of This is Fighting Robots, Cat King is known as Cataclysm, and entered RoboGames 2018 under the captaincy of Team Bad Kitty. The robot's weapon was instead a vertical bar spinner. It fought ShapeShifter in the first round, and ripped through its wedge using its bar spinner, then pinned ShapeShifter on the wall for a win by knockout. It fought Gruff in the second round, but lost the use of its weapon, and was immobilized by Gruff on two separate occasions. Although Gruff sportingly released Cataclysm, the Judges' decision went in favor of Gruff, placing Cataclysm in the losers' bracket, where it fought Khaos and removed its batteries with a powerful blow. It then qualified for the top eight after defeating Ragin Scotsman on a Judges' decision. Despite an initial lead, Cataclysm was defeated by Lucky after being stranded on the arena wall. Cat King also applied for BattleBots in 2018 under the ownership of Western Allied Robotics, where it would be known as WAR Hawk. This was a modified version of Cat King's vertical disk configuration which took advantage of the extra weight allowed by BattleBots and had a much more robust front wedge. Martin Mason and Emmanuel Carrillo were present as team members. In its first battle, it fought the full-body drum spinner of Axe Backwards and easily overpowered the fellow spinner, throwing it into the air and later removing its wheel, leading to a knockout victory for WAR Hawk. Team member Martin Mason had previously entered the second season of BattleBots on ABC with Bad Kitty, which also featured a small minibot and served as a predecessor to the cat-themed robots such as Cat King. Bad Kitty lost its only battle to Black Ice in a three-way rumble to enter the main bracket of the tournament, after being overturned near the wall of the BattleBox. Team Food Fight primarily competed in the insect weight classes, with Cat King being the team's first heavyweight project. Their lighter robots include: Plastic Fork Bot.jpg|Plastic Fork Bot Pizza Slicer Bot.jpg|Pizza Slicer Bot with its RoboGames medal Pizza Slicer Bot 2.jpg|Pizza Slicer Bot after receiving upgrades Hotdog Roller.jpg|Hotdog Roller The Big Smack.jpg|The Big Smack Footlong.jpg|Footlong Double Stuff.jpg|Double Stuff Wurst Nightmare CAD.jpg|Initial CAD of Wurst Nightmare *'Plastic Fork Bot', an antweight armed with a broad, flat wedge, and an electric arm designed to hold robots in place. *'Pizza Slicer Bot', an antweight armed with a vertical bar spinner, which finished in third place at RoboGames in 2016. *'Pizza Cutter Bot', an antweight armed with a thin spinning drisc. *'The Big Smack', an antweight full body spinner, visually resembling a cheeseburger. *'Hotdog Roller', an invertible antweight armed with a wide drum spinner, initially planned to resemble a hotdog. *'Pizza King', the successor to Pizza Slicer Bot, also an antweight armed with a vertical bar spinner. *'Footlong', a fairyweight armed with a vertical bar spinner, using a prominent wedge. *'Double Stuff', an invertible antweight armed with a drisc thicker than that of Pizza Cutter Bot, which uses a brushless drive. Team Food Fight competed at RoboGames in 2018 with a 60lb invertible robot Wurst Nightmare, armed with an 18lb drum spinner, which lost its opening battle to Asterion but defeated Dark Ripper, Cassowari and Cornholio, before falling to Tastes Like Burning in the top eight. External Links *Team Food Fight Instagram Category:This is Fighting Robots competitors Category:Season 1.5 competitors Category:Robots from the United States of America Category:Robots with vertical flywheels Category:Invertible robots Category:RoboGames Competitors Category:Robots from California Category:Reinstated robots Category:Robots with Lifters Category:Robots with Interchangeable Weaponry Category:Clusterbots Category:Robots which have thrown an opponent out of the arena